In need of a snuggle with the memory scarf...

These days I have been thinking about Oxford. It probably has a lot to do with all the end-of-term picture dumps that the full-termers have been leaving all over facebook, but there are other factors as well. This semester has been a new sort of experience for me--after the Oxford bootcamp, I've found myself even more at home in academics, but also able to let them be in order to just have fun. If I step back and look back on the semester, I realize that it's all kind of been an attempt to preserve what went on at SCIO, the intensity of study matched with intensity of camaraderie. Of course, it isn't the same, and re-reading journal entries and looking at photos for the upteenth time gives me strong sense of wistfulness. I miss those times a lot, and I especially miss the people. So know that you are thought fondly of, my SCIO pals!

                Please enjoy this lovely photo of David Bowie wearing a Raymond Briggs Snowman Scarf

In other news, the weather here has been rather England-y. Il ne fait pas beau at all, to say the least. If April showers bring May flowers, than I am fully expecting every darned square inch of the ground to be sprouting a well-watered daffodil or somesuch spring flower come next month. My canoeing class has been cancelled two weeks in a row, which is putting a damper on my plans for "just-around-the-river-bend" singing.

Academically, I'm having fun working on a great paper right now, or at least, the topic is great. I'm arguing why P.G. Wodehouse's "The Code of the Woosters" is a novel worth of college-level academic study, based on how well it illustrates concepts put forth by a particular school of literary theory. Though it doesn't really fit into any one mold very well, I think I'm going to approach it from a Bakhtinian "heteroglossia" angle. Humor in its basest sense often pulls from many "langues", and well-thought humor like Wodehouse's is packed to the gills with langues, everything from linguistic, literary, class, gender, political, etc. However, the thing I've noticed the most is how every phrase seems carefully crafted to be a zinger--the "langue" of language itself is one of the most prominent, so at this point I'm going to focus on that one, and (hopefully) show how it ties in the rest.

My tentative attempts to be a grown-up have not made much progress:

• Making a fried egg --  check
• Wearing/owning a thumb ring -- check
• Making ham and bean soup -- check, I have also now made Navajo Fry bread successfully.
• Ability to drive a stick shift -- no further work done here so far...but the summer is coming!
• Being financially savvy -- Well, I successfully did my own taxes, and signed up for a money management class for the fall. A small step there.
• Having a real job --Have realized that this step is impossible without the addition of an another step which is:
• Owning a car: this one is a castle in the sky at this point. 
• Living on my own --I will never do this. I think I will have to have a roommate/housemate always or else I will be too bored. Also, cooking for one is too hard.

I think that Peter Pan had some serious things going for him.